No kid. Damn.
Time stretched out, as endless as the nightsky before them. Vic closed his eyes as his mind jumped from animalto bird and back again, flickering among the wildlife like ashadow, touching down here and there but never lingering for long.None of the minds he connected with were the right one. None werehuman.
None were Noah.
A tap on his shoulder startled him. He turnedto find Kendra leaning forward and pointing to her headset.Annoyed, he flicked on the mike in his headset and growled,“What?”
Even though she spoke into the mike, shestill had to yell over the sound of the whirling blades. “It’sgetting late,” she shouted. “Maybe we should—”
“He’s still out there,” Vic hollered. “Theweather—”
“It’s been two hours!” Kendra gave him anexaggerated look, a mix of defeat and sadness and apology. “Wecan’t stay up here all night. There’s no way he came this far.”
Vic shook his head and glanced down at thetrees. “You don’t know that. No one’s found him yet.”
A long moment passed, and then she saidsoftly, “Maybe there’s a reason for that.”
Vic glared as he tore off his headset. If hecouldn’t help one small, little boy, why did he have the damnpowers in the first place? Why give him an ability he couldn’t usewhen it really mattered? When others depended on it?
Without the headset on, the noise overheadwas almost deafening. Vic couldn’t hear his own thoughts, let aloneanyone else’s. The images and emotions he’d been experiencing fellaway as Vic physically reeled his mind back where it belonged. Muchgood it’d do.
Then he felt it. A tiny snag on hisconsciousness, a thin tug. ::Whirligig,:: one word,whispered into his soul in a child’s voice, full of amazement andwonder.
::Whirligig.:: That was all.
Vic turned his whole body to the right,pointing. “There, there,” he cried, jabbing a finger againstthe cold windshield. “I heard something.”
Kendra’s hand gripped his shoulder. Heglanced at her and nodded. She shook her head, pointing at theheadset, and he hurried to pull it back on. “Down there!” he cried,louder this time.
“Is it him?” Kendra asked.
Cayce was already maneuvering the helicoptertowards a clearing in the trees. “This is the edge of the quarry,”he said over the mike. “Kid couldn’t have walked this far.”
But Kendra’s grin said otherwise. “Manyautistic children who wander away wind up near water. It draws themin, sometimes with tragic results. Are you sure it’s him?”
“I don’t know,” Vic admitted. “I heard achild’s voice. Unless there’s another child out heresomewhere—”
“God, I hope not. Cayce, call it in!” Kendranudged the pilot’s shoulder, and the helicopter lurched inresponse.
Cayce shook his head. “We don’t know if he’sthere or not. It could be nothing—”
“It’s him,” Kendra said, more surethan Vic was himself. “It has to be.”
“Because he ‘heard’ something?” Cayce asked,throwing Vic a nasty look.
::Yeah, because I heard something,::Vic answered directly in Cayce’s head. ::Like you’re hearing menow.::
Grudgingly, Cayce flipped his mike to an openchannel and began radioing in their coordinates. As soon as he setthe helicopter on the ground, Vic unlocked the door and jumped out.Hunched over, he ran away from the whirling blades and into thedarkened wood.
::Vic!:: Matt cried.
::It’s him, I know it is,:: Vicassured his lover. ::I got this.::
Underbrush and bare branches clawed at Vic’scoat and pants. Evergreen needles slapped his face. He duckedthrough the woods, mind stretching ahead, reaching out,searching…
::Whirligig.:: There, up ahead.
He vaulted over a fallen tree trunk andskidded in a pile of rotten leaves as he turned. He’d feltsomething, a presence, a heartbeat, as he’d cleared thetrunk, and he peered into the shadows, trying to find it. Nogood—too dark. So he closed his eyes and opened his mindinstead.
There, huddled in a hollow formed where thefallen trunk rested against a tree still standing. There,crouched down, silent.
A tired, hungry, dingy little boy.
::Noah,:: Vic said, speaking with histhoughts, not his mouth.
He heard a gasp, then a scrambling throughthe undergrowth. For a heart-stopping second, he was afraid the kidwas going to run away. Would they be able to find him again? Thenight was growing colder, the snow moving in. If they lost himnow…
Then Vic felt a small pair of arms wraparound one of his legs. He dropped a hand to ruffle the boy’s hairand opened his eyes. Looking down, he saw a pale, dirty facesmiling up at him. ::I hear you talk inside my head,:: Noahthought.
Vic grinned. ::Let’s get you home.Everyone’s out looking for you, and I’m sure your parents miss youvery much.::
* * * *
Their return to the command center was a washof flashing lights. Matt’s head was swimming—from the helicopterride as much as from the wine and coffee warring in his stomach.When the chopper landed, reporters pressed as close as they daredwhile the blades were still whirling, cameras and microphonesshoved out towards the rescuers. Noah Roberts was in the back seatbetween Matt and Kendra, wrapped in a silver blanket to ward offshock. As the chopper’s engine wound down, Kendra pulled theblanket up over his head and opened the door.
Within minutes, she had run the gauntlet ofreporters and disappeared with the little boy inside the commandunit vehicle. The press followed like dogs on a scent.
Matt took off his headset and scooted towardsthe open door. The pilot’s voice stopped him. “Hey, man,” Caycesaid to Vic, “I’m sorry I doubted you. Kendra said you could do it,but she didn’t really tell me how or why. I didn’t really believeher.”
With his usual self-depreciation, Vicmuttered, “It’s cool.”
Still, when Cayce stuck out a hand, Vic shookit. The pilot held the grip a moment longer than necessary as hestudied Vic closely. After a long moment, he asked, “How didyou do it? Whatever
